Voices of the
BIG BEND
Jim Glendinning continues the tradition of his popular radio interviews from “Voices of the Big Bend,” an original production of KRTS,
Marfa Public Radio. The program continues to be broadcast occasionally throughout the region at 93.5 FM.
Story and photographs by Jim Glendinning
JOE ESPY WILLIAMS
Wearing two hats, old and new
Marfa, simultaneously and with suc-
cess, Joe Espy Williams relates his
busy life story. He was born on July
31, 1951 in Fort Stockton and grew
up in Sanderson. His father, John T.
Williams, owned wool and mohair
warehouses in Sanderson and Alpine.
His mother Tommie Espy also had
another son, Travis, who works in
Indonesia in the furniture business,
and a daughter, Kay, now deceased.
Williams’ earliest memories are of
nature, sheep and cattle, an
“absolutely wonderful experience.”
After early schooling in Sanderson he
moved in 1964 to the New Mexico
Military Academy in Roswell, NM,
where he learned discipline and had
“one of the best private educations
you can buy.” He graduated in 1969
and went to the University of Texas in
Austin, but quit after a year and
moved to Australia.
He says this radical move to a dis-
tant continent was due to there being
no future for him in the wool and
mohair business and also to his grand-
father’s refusal to teach him the cattle
business. He thrived in his new home;
Americans were popular, and his
work ethic was rewarded. Arriving in
1970, he first worked in the outback,
moved to Sydney for a city job, then
to Hunter Valley, NSW, planting
vineyards.
Williams returned to Texas in
1975 to help his mother move into an
inherited property near Wild Rose
Pass, Star Mountain Ranch. Five
years later he returned to Australia.
This time he moved to Queensland
and formed a partnership. He started
16
Cenizo
JOE ESPY WILLIAMS
Fort Davis
buying land, trading in cattle and
improving the herd with practices
learned in Texas. His partner bought
him out in 1987, when Williams real-
ized he needed to return home to help
his mother, now in poor health.
In 1989, Williams joined the
Superior Livestock Video Authority,
a brand new innovative enterprise, as
an independent contractor. This com-
pany, selling livestock via video, has
since become the largest of its kind in
the world, and Williams has been
extremely successful. He continues
this work today, driving 90,000 miles
annually. This is the “old hat” he
wears.
The “new hat” is one he discov-
ered in Marfa when he bought Big
Bend Coffee Roasters in 2008. In cof-
First Quarter 2014
GINGER HILLERY
Alpine
fee he recognized a sustainable and
profitable product totally appropriate
to the new Marfa. He moved into the
old Pierce Motors showroom, and
hired able assistants of whom he is
extremely proud. Sales of 300 pounds
weekly at the start have increased to
2,400 pounds.
Big Bend Coffee Roasters coffee is
certified organic, and subscribes to
Fair Trade principles. Williams also
donates to three tri-county non-prof-
its, as well as Casa Hogar children’s
shelter in Ojinaga. Food Pantry in
Marfa, in particular, gets his money
and his time.
Williams lives for his work, and
loves the fact that he can wear both
hats in the Big Bend country, while
living in Fort Davis as well as keeping
E. DAN KLEPPER
Marathon
in touch with his two sons, Joe and
James, who live in Austin and
Washington, D.C. respectively.
GINGER HILLERY
Born in Oklahoma City on
November 11, 1966, the eldest of
three daughters, Ginger Rowe always
considered herself a Texan. “I belong
to Texas,” she says. Her father John,
a firefighter, and mother, Fran, a pro-
fessional artist, moved to Lampasas,
Texas, in 1977, where Ginger
planned her future as she attended
local schools.
By age 11, she had developed four
passions: riding, writing, reading and
cooking. She still retains today cook-
ing recipes she compiled in the third